Law enforcement leaders debrief on Christopher Dorner manhunt

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department convened a multi-agency debriefing Tuesday on the investigation into the deadly standoff between sheriff's deputies and former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner near Big Bear Lake.

"It was a debriefing on the homicide investigation, and they do this on every single investigation," sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said, declining to divulge further details.

San Bernardino County Sgt. Trevis Newport, whose team has been investigating the Dorner incident for the last five months, gave the presentation, Bachman said.

Members of the Riverside, Los Angeles and Irvine police departments attended Tuesday's debriefing, which was closed to the public, officials from all three agencies said. Torrance Police Chief John Neu said he has attended two previous meetings with other law enforcement officials to go over details of the Dorner case, but neither he nor other members of his department were present at Tuesday's meeting.

All four law enforcement agencies were tied to the Dorner crime spree that spanned 10 days, beginning on Feb. 4 with the fatal shooting of a retired Los Angeles police captain's daughter and her fiance at an Irvine condominium complex and culminated Feb. 14 with the deadly standoff in the San Bernardino Mountains, where Dorner is reported to have taken his own life during a standoff with a sheriff's SWAT team.

Dorner is also suspected of killing San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Jeremiah MacKay and Riverside police office Michael Crain. He is also suspected of seriously wounding Crain's partner, Andrew Tachias, and San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy Alex Collins.

Dorner's actions were spurred by what he said was his unjust firing from the Los Angeles Police Department. He maintained that his termination was retaliation for him reporting to his superiors that his training officer had assaulted a citizen. He vowed on his Facebook manifesto "unconventional and asymetrical warfare" against police and their families.

Sheriff's officials would not comment on the status of the investigation, when it is expected to wrap up, or when they can expect to submit their report to the District Attorney's Office for review. Nor would they divulge specifics as to what was discussed during Tuesday's briefing.

Jim Bueermann, former Redlands police chief and president of the Washington D.C.-based think tank Police Foundation, said it is commonplace for law enforcement agencies to conduct operational reviews and debriefings following major incidents, especially ones involving multiple jurisdictions.

"If you look at any major incident, there is almost always an operational review after it," Bueermann said. "The people in American policing are very focused on trying to do the right thing and minimize the loss of life."

He said such meetings are typically held to assess the incident in question and get input from all agencies involved.

A team of veteran law enforcement professionals from the Police Foundation attended Tuesday's debriefing because the foundation has been tasked with conducting a review of the Dorner incident and drafting a report. The report should be completed in the fall, possibly sooner, and will be distributed to every law enforcement agency in the U.S., Bueermann said.